I felt some heavy ‘deja vu’ over Councils’ announcement on the effects of Climate Change on Noosa. In hindsight, I probably spooked influential sectoral interests in Hastings Street by daring to raise the spectre of the potential risk to low-lying Noosa from Climate Change in my book Just Famous Enough Not to be Noticed.
“Noosa had been identified internationally by UNESCO as one of a handful of global locations at risk of rising sea levels in the coming decades. Noosa Biosphere Reserve’s own climate planning had identified the same risk and lecturer content at The University of the Sunshine Coast also pointed to the effect of longer periods of drought, followed by much heavier rainfall, soaring temperatures, storms fronts and the risk of tidal surge and inundation.
A global insurance outlook report had a similar message. Our own Federal government report of the day estimated over one billion dollars of infrastructure and buildings could be affected.”
My proposal to ‘float’ conversations about looking forward and considering the economic, social and community impacts sponsored by biosphere and tourism seemed prescient.
I proposed briefing Tourism Noosa members, key players in business and especially the real estate sector and politicians.
Well, the ostriches went ape-shit. I was accused of scare-tactics to push the Noosa Biosphere Reserve agenda. I knew the Gold Coast had already identified similar issues but had maturely included it in planning conference agendas and had the issue out in the open. Not so Noosa.
As it turns out by late 2014, the new Noosa Council had announced that residents living in designated areas expected to be affected by rising sea levels of up to 0.8m, would have to build higher starting at 0.3m and progress up to the forecast 0.8m by 2100 when rainfall intensity was expected to have increased by some twenty percent thereby exacerbating flooding when combined with storm surge and new sea levels.
By 2015 the potential threat was more openly acknowledged.
This community driven assessment was considered so appropriate by UNESCO that it was published as one of the Global Top 25 assessments of risk facing a biosphere.
View the Noosa Climate Action Plan 2012 here.
Nice historical note from Michael, whose Biosphere 1 – resented and eventually axed by the Shadowmen – did much for Noosa. The big question now remains, after declaring an ’emergency’ what the Wellington mob is going to do for the estimated 2,200 properties will be affected by inevitable climate change. This issue is about people not about Council point scoring.
Yes, thanks for posting Michael. Noosa Council is now bringing the issue out in the open again, and the media is going nuts. Surprise, surprise. Noosa bashing is a national sport, after all.
Keith, I’m not sure Council can do much at all financially to protect the 2,200 affected properties in the same way that they don’t much help people affected by flooding now. Except, saying sandbags are available for you to fill. It could be that state or federal funding would become available, but it will be insurance companies that decide on premium risk as they do now. I remember the kerfuffel over the Brisbane floods when so many properties were inundated and many insurance companies denied claims. Since then, many companies have given blanket flood cover to all their customers, regardless of the fact that live on a hill, like me. I’d do get this subsidizing of losses, since that’s essentially what insurance is all about, but I’m pretty sure my goodwill won’t extend to people on the coast experiencing rising sea levels and worsening storm surges.
Council has an obligation to existing home owners to inform them of issues, and certainly an obligation to those purchasing properties to know their risks. Court actions against Council would be pretty common if they didn’t. And I reckon the legal costs involved, plus the costs of protecting coastal properties, would drive rates sky high.
In any case, given current predictions, we have the worst effects sea level rises well in the future. Perhaps actions to revert the worst predictions will succeed.
‘Noosa Council is bringing the issue out in the open again’? It should never have gone away! This was the beginning of an engagement and awareness-rising journey that was effectively shelved. The women and men working hard on this were disenfranchised and in some cases insulted. I remember one fantastic working session at the time where Susi Chapman told us about the experiences on Bribie Island, where it became clear, that climate change alarmism did not work with baby boomers, but a solution oriented strategy around emergency planning for house-holders did.
‘Don’t come over alarmist and crying now!’ comes to mind. This was only one of the tragic consequences of ‘the Shadowmen’ trashing a community effort. Putting public money into vanity projects, politicising environmental action, Greenwash and generally thriving on dividing rather than galvanising community ultimately results in a broken contract with the wider community. It fills me with sadness watching the polarisation and shrill climate-change-denier screams now. Elitism and division have caused this and some of us watched this spectacle unfold with horror and worries about the backlash. Our ‘Park gate keepers’ should hang their heads in shame. They could have contributed and helped and shared their expertise, but unfortunately were more interested in control than inclusion and the wellbeing of the wider community.
An interesting retrospective piece which reminds us of both previous endeavours and the challenges in taking action. I, like Michael, have seen the climate debate cycle repeat itself, but my deja vu takes me back to 1990 when I first successfully moved as a young Noosa Councillor to take Climate action after the release of the first IPCC report. How much easier would it be now fi we had taken global action back then?
While I agree with Bettina that the Noosa Climate Action Plan ‘should never have gone away’ I feel obliged to point out that the proposition that the Noosa Biosphere Climate Action Plan was killed off by “shadowmen” is, in my opinion, a fabrication. I am not saying that the change to institutional arrangements around the Biosphere didn’t have an impact on the social capital that was generated through Noosa Biosphere Limited (NBL). I am saying, that as someone who was one of the drivers behind the Noosa Climate Action Project that its hibernation was a result of a broader cultural and political apathy.
It is this culture of apathy toward long term risks that has generated the need for local governments like Noosa to shine a light on the urgent need for systemic mitigation and adaptation responses at all levels of government, and our declaring of a Climate Emergency has, in my opinion, achieved that objective.
For those interested in the history, the Climate Action Plan emanated from a priority project developed and delivered through the Environment Sector Board of the NBL (of which I was a member and eventually Chair) in collaboration with Suzie Chapman from SEQ Catchments. It was based on a series of community workshops which I helped to design and facilitate. The first workshop was held in Pomona (Sept 2010) and hosted by Landcare. We then held a session at the Sheraton, which from memory the Noosa Residents and Ratepayers hosted . The last was in Peregian. A team, lead by Suzie, with representatives from all of the above organisations plus USC, SCEC and NICA then developed the draft plan in conjunction with the NBL Board.
After hearing the expert presentation by Kate English (USC) at the workshops, polling I ran at the end of the first two clearly showed the two highest rated risks were 1) more intense storm events and 2) sea level rise/ coastal erosion; with 100% of participants being “convinced we need to take action now to adapt to protect the Noosa Biosphere”.
A media release I penned at the time highlighted these priorities and noted that “we have had to face major storm events before, like the cyclones in the 1970s which saw waves washing through Hasting St shops. The challenge is that with such great change in the population since that time … “. The problem of a rapidly changing population is a recurring one, that requires us to revisit these issues with the community over and over again.
It is important to highlight that while the NBL Noosa Climate Action Plan may have been in hibernation during the last years of the amalgamated Council and early years of the new Noosa Council it is an active reference for Council’s climate adaption policy and planning in the current term.
I also need to point out these are my opinions not those of Noosa Council, and end by reinforcing that rather than creating division; Council has made great strides in bringing together all the relevant community groups in regular forums and has formalised an Environment Roundtable playing a far more active and influential role than the Environment Sector Board ever enjoyed with the Sunshine Coast Council during the amalgamation years. Its time to move on.
Cr Brian Stockwell